The Internet offers a unique glimpse into realities hidden in the psyche of societies. As a medium for free speech, cyberspace offers a hidden treasure trove for intelligence analysts, scholars and run of the mill political enthusiasts. Indeed, this assortment of gateways, hubs, and servers offers a unique opportunity for those seeking insight into any topic or opinion. It is also a breeding ground for activists and spin artists more than willing to oblige with their unique brand of fact and fiction.

On the receiving end of the equation, Internet discussion forums play an essential role as a delivery engine as well in preserving the spin and integrating it into mainstream culture. Countless rants, discussions and flame wars take place on a daily basis in discussion forums across the Internet. This interaction provides the researcher with a glimpse of not only the users individual thoughts, but also a unique map of cause-effect relationships between the actions of the government and the reactions of the populace.

There are several tools available to the government and media to gather opinion data, and gauge the pulse of wide segments of the population. Most of these tools, however, fall short compared to well maintained discussion forums.

Online Polls:

Polls are really a statistical tool which often lack subjective input from users. The general flaw of this medium is the fact that a poll is often guided by the objectives of the pollsters. Online polls present an additional challenge in that the audience and security of the poll become obstacles in the collection of good data. Not only can users successfully skew a poll but also, the users themselves, are more often than not a skewed "audience" rather than a representative segment of society. This is due to the fact that most sites that host polls typically have a "biased" audience to begin with. Another shortcoming with polls comes from the technology itself. While short polls are able to gather more votes on specific issues, they are ineffective in explaining why users voted a certain way and not another. The longer and more intricate polls that allow users to type in responses typically yield less votes because many users are unwilling to spend the time required to fill out their answers.

Chat Boards:

Chat boards are a highly popular and effective tool on the Internet but nevertheless, fail to compete with discussion forums for the purpose of research and information gathering. Chat software is best described as a communications tool offering users the ability to interact with one another in near real-time. The shortcoming here, originates from the fact that the exchange of ideas and opinions between users cannot be easily archived in the public domain. This combined with that fact that many chat discussions are often conducted in small groups, renders a significant data collection and archiving process prohibitive.

Weblogs (Blogs) and Published Content:

Personal weblogs and online political columns offer limited insights into the opinions of large market segments. Whether published by a large news organization, a well-known columnist or an individual with a webpage or blog (popular weblog software) this opinion content is typically biased and not representative of the mass opinion. Content collected in this case usually reflects the opinion of a specific person or in the case of large news outlets, is tainted by the editorial slant of the organization.